CD/DVD drive is playing up

[Guest]

Hi, most of the time i can insert a cd/dvd and it can play it fine, but for
some disks (that aren't even cratched) they make a funny noise in the drive
and cannot be picked up by my computer, if a dvd like this is recognised by
my computerit diesnt work for long and just freezes. i notice that this is
always come with a funny sound from the drive.
I would appreciate any help on this subject.

 

[Dave Cox]

Hi, most of the time i can insert a cd/dvd and it can play it
fine, but for some disks (that aren't even cratched) they make a
funny noise in the drive and cannot be picked up by my computer,
if a dvd like this is recognised by my computerit diesnt work for
long and just freezes. i notice that this is always come with a
funny sound from the drive. I would appreciate any help on this
subject.

Replace the drive.

Dave

 

[Adam Albright]

Hi, most of the time i can insert a cd/dvd and it can play it fine, but for
some disks (that aren't even cratched) they make a funny noise in the drive
and cannot be picked up by my computer, if a dvd like this is recognised by
my computerit diesnt work for long and just freezes. i notice that this is
always come with a funny sound from the drive.
I would appreciate any help on this subject.

If it only happens with some discs and not all, I doubt there is
anything wrong with your drive, but the fault is with some discs. The
easy way to confirm this is try playing them in another computer and
see if that computer too makes "funny sounds" trying to play it.

Just because you don't see scratches doesn't mean the disc isn't
damaged. Those funny sounds are likely the drive going crazy trying to
seek sectors it can't access due to some corruption on the disc.

Make sure that the CD or DVD is free from all foreign material,
fingerprints, smudges, etc.. There is no practical way of repairing a
damaged CD/DVD. If it is a one of a kind you don't have a replacement
for you best bet is to try to copy what files you can from it using
the Command Prompt assuming the disc can be read at all.

 

[Neil]

If it only happens with some discs and not all, I doubt there is
anything wrong with your drive, but the fault is with some discs. The
easy way to confirm this is try playing them in another computer and
see if that computer too makes "funny sounds" trying to play it.

Just because you don't see scratches doesn't mean the disc isn't
damaged. Those funny sounds are likely the drive going crazy trying to
seek sectors it can't access due to some corruption on the disc.

Make sure that the CD or DVD is free from all foreign material,
fingerprints, smudges, etc.. There is no practical way of repairing a
damaged CD/DVD. If it is a one of a kind you don't have a replacement
for you best bet is to try to copy what files you can from it using
the Command Prompt assuming the disc can be read at all.

I have had a terrible problem with a LiteOn SH-16A7S (brand new SATA DVD-RW
drive). It exhibited very similar symptoms. A fairly significant
proportion of my movie discs were simply not recognised as being present in
the drive. (I haven't come across a data DVD or CD that wasn't recognised,
but that's not to say they don't exist). The drive would spend a while
spinning them and looking over and over, and eventually give up. [The
computer did not freeze during this searching though as the OP seemed to
observe]. In my case I really do believe there is something wrong with the
drive, as the discs which are not registered in the drive all work perfectly
in my other drive (10-year-old PATA Hitachi DVD ROM drive). I had the drive
replaced with another of the same type which showed exactly the same
problem. I am about to exchange it for a completely different make &
model - Samsung SH-S203. If anyone has any bad experiences with this drive
please reply here, and I'll select something else.

Neil

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all your help, i might try getting a disk cleaner or something
--
Thanks from Matt

If it only happens with some discs and not all, I doubt there is
anything wrong with your drive, but the fault is with some discs. The
easy way to confirm this is try playing them in another computer and
see if that computer too makes "funny sounds" trying to play it.

Just because you don't see scratches doesn't mean the disc isn't
damaged. Those funny sounds are likely the drive going crazy trying to
seek sectors it can't access due to some corruption on the disc.

Make sure that the CD or DVD is free from all foreign material,
fingerprints, smudges, etc.. There is no practical way of repairing a
damaged CD/DVD. If it is a one of a kind you don't have a replacement
for you best bet is to try to copy what files you can from it using
the Command Prompt assuming the disc can be read at all.

I have had a terrible problem with a LiteOn SH-16A7S (brand new SATA DVD-RW
drive). It exhibited very similar symptoms. A fairly significant
proportion of my movie discs were simply not recognised as being present in
the drive. (I haven't come across a data DVD or CD that wasn't recognised,
but that's not to say they don't exist). The drive would spend a while
spinning them and looking over and over, and eventually give up. [The
computer did not freeze during this searching though as the OP seemed to
observe]. In my case I really do believe there is something wrong with the
drive, as the discs which are not registered in the drive all work perfectly
in my other drive (10-year-old PATA Hitachi DVD ROM drive). I had the drive
replaced with another of the same type which showed exactly the same
problem. I am about to exchange it for a completely different make &
model - Samsung SH-S203. If anyone has any bad experiences with this drive
please reply here, and I'll select something else.

Neil

 

[Guest]

Hi... I am having same problem with getting computer to read CDs on which I
have backed up loads of photographs. The problem seems to be that if even
one photo is corrupted, the computer does not just give up trying to read it
and move on: instead it just completely freezes. So a whole disc of photos
can be impossible to read or recover just because of one corrupt file.
Surely someone could invent a reading programme that would know to 'skip' an
error? I have tried a 'CD Restore' program but same happens. Its very
frustrating!!